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Frogfish Reproduction

I have been lucky enough to witness frogfish spawning on two occasions. The first time was Friday the 13th! June 2003 and the second time was March 8th 2005. On the last occasion I had seen the large female swollen with eggs the day before with the smaller male close by so I decided to go back the next night to check on them again. I was running out of bottom time and nothing was happening so I began to move on when the male started to nudge at the female's vent. He nudged her several times as they started moving along the sponge they had been resting on and then with one last push they swam up, attached together, several feet into the water column. She released her egg mass and he released his sperm at the same moment. Both the male and female then drifted down slowly back onto the reef while the eggs floated up towards the surface.

Update 9/8/06:I recently witnessed 2 different pairs of frogfish spawning in less than 2 weeks. August 23rd, 2006 at 8:03pm and September 4th, 2006 at 7:40pm. I filmed the September 4th spawning with my Olympus 5050Z digital camera. Click on the view video icon (12th photo in this gallery) to watch the video. At the beginning you will notice that the frogfish give a wonderful demonstration of spawning behavior without the female actually releasing the eggs. The actual release of eggs and sperm happens very quickly so I was extremely pleased that they put on quite a show before the actual event.

More spawning dates...March 28th, 2007 7:25pm, April 1st, 2008 7:24pm, May 22nd, 2008 7:26pm, June 28th, 2008 7:30pm.

For more info....
Teresa Zubi's Frogfish Pages
Florida Museum of Natural History

All images and content Copyright © 2006-2008 Ellen Muller. Please do not use any images without permission.
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small orange male starting to push at the larger female, swollen with eggs
small orange male starting to push at the larger female, swollen with eggs		 small orange male nudging female seconds before spawning
small orange male nudging female seconds before spawning		 Female moving upward in the water column to release her eggs with male holding on to her
Female moving upward in the water column to release her eggs with male holding on to her		 female releasing eggs
female releasing eggs
egg raft
egg raft		 egg raft 2
egg raft 2		 female just before spawning
female just before spawning		 gravid female
gravid female
frogfish couple
frogfish couple		 Pier Pair
Pier Pair		 Playa Pabao pair
Playa Pabao pair		 Frogfish Spawning Video
Frogfish Spawning Video
Frogfish Pair
Frogfish Pair		 Three Frogfish
Three Frogfish		 Three Frogfish
Three Frogfish		 Frogfish Pair
Frogfish Pair
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post a comment
Ellen Muller 29-Dec-2006 19:26
Hi Graham, I have never seen frogfish spawn at dusk, as many other fish do, but only at night. I noted the times of the last two spawnings that I witnessed on my notes at the top of this page. The first two spawnings, in 2003 and 2005, occurred at 9:08pm and 8:45pm, respectively. Good luck with your quest to witness frogfish spawning!
Graham Abbott 29-Dec-2006 05:51
Hi Ellen,
Carol sent me the details on the frogfish spawning. I am very interested to hear at what time od the day this happens, is it like with most other fish, at dusk?
The more information you could send me the better, I don't have a decent conneciton here right now, but the small images are enough to see that you have documented somehtign evry sepcial indeed. I ahve seen the same thing happen, with two frogfish together, then came back laetr to find oen totally deflated, obviosuly we missed the spawning.
Look forward to hearign mroe form you!
Graham
www.diving4images.com
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